The Kids Research Institute Australia has welcomed the recommendations to come out of the State Government’s inquiry into support for autistic children and young people in schools, released last week.
The parliamentary inquiry, chaired by Thornlie MLA Chris Tallentire, explored the prevalence of autism in Western Australian school children and how the education system should adapt to deal with the growing number of students being diagnosed.
The Angela Wright Bennett Professor of Autism Research at The Kids Research Institute Australia and The University of Western Australia, Andrew Whitehouse, and CliniKids Research Development Manager, Sarah Pillar, were invited to present evidence to the Parliamentary Committee undertaking the inquiry.
Professor Whitehouse welcomed the recommendations and said they would help address many challenges faced by autistic students and their families in the school system, if implemented.
“The report is strong and the findings will hopefully go a long way to tackling the issues increasingly faced by families of autistic children, such as school refusal (school can’t), bullying and disengagement with learning,” Professor Whitehouse said.
Professor Whitehouse singled out Recommendation Three — that all Western Australian education legislative and policy frameworks align with the Autism CRC’s National Supporting Autistic Children Guideline — as one of many findings the research and clinical teams at CliniKids influenced.
“To have Parliament stand up and say that a piece of work the whole CliniKids team contributed to should form the backbone of an entire system, has to rank as the ultimate clinical and research aim,” Professor Whitehouse said.
“There is still a lot of work to do to have widescale reform for autistic students and their families, but it is a fantastic start.”
To read the full report and its recommendations, visit: https://bit.ly/43NmFFv